Interstellar ... eppur si muove? After a long time in which science-fiction, movies at least, seemed rooted to the cliché of the demonization of technology, referred to as the cause of all evils, 2014 sees some attempts of the survivor cinema intelligence to articulate some thought, though faltering and shot from the hips, still using much of the neo-medieval armamentarium that characterizes the global entertainment during the last fifteen years. A season that perfectly embodied the main topic of todays traditionalist rhetoric: great technologies and poor contents. All of this topped with a repeated nauseous use of ultra-tested templates, meeting the cash requirements of the Hollywood producers. As I wrote regarding Lucy, the latest Luc Besson’s film (https://facebook/AVAutinoSpaceRenaissancePhilosophy/photos/a.112687448905065.1073741830.110572975783179/218166608357148/?type=1), Interstellar offers some interesting philosophical concepts, finally opposed to the main-stream anti-human metaphysics. Such aspect makes it worthy of a positive vote. From the cinematographic point of view Christopher Nolan, the director of the wonderful Inception, is undoubtedly confirmed as one of the most interesting authors of this season: the set and the picture are very beautiful, and the subject, as also several reviewers wrote on the web , aims high, to deal with Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. The acting is top-notch, and some scenes took me away some tears! And I am not talking much about the heartbreaking farewell between Cooper and her daughter Murph. I mean the moving courage of intelligence and curiosity, shown with simplicity while they insist on exploring, refusing to be overwhelmed by the rampant stupidity, even when everything seems lost, and the world seems to crumble. Regarding the positive philosophical concepts, two are the main. First, science and technology are not evil, but the only hope of mankind, even from the methodological point of view. Cooper recommends it to his daughter: observe, take notes, record the data over time, compare them and suggest your deductions. Murph, thanks to the teachings of his father, and to her great curiosity and courage, will solve the problem that the old NASA scientist had been trying to solve for his entire life... Second, but not least, the space is not a waste of money or fun for very rich people, but the natural outcome of humanity, when its growth goes beyond the sustainability of the mother planet. Cooper says it clearly and simply: our species is born on Earth, but can not live forever on Earth (paraphrasing Konstantin Tsiolkowsky The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live the whole life in a cradle). Having said about the positive aspects, we shall talk about the very controversial aspects of this work. If the two above concepts are clear to those who, like myself, spent a long time trying to think and conceptualize a humanist philosophy of the space age, which effectiveness can have this film as a means of communication to the general public, and in particular to young people, the first recipients of any discussion about the future? On this layer any doubt is more than legitimate. From the philosophical point of view, this work shows how the attempt of a science-fiction (conceptually) dying to get back to its feet, groping blindly, suggesting some positive concepts, still encrusted and immersed in communal and nihilistic de-growth propaganda. Planet Earth, or rather its biome suitable to sustain civilized human life, seems tragically doomed, fishing out one of the most abused topics by the post-apocalyptic genre. The proposed future is more a mass exodus from Earth, than an expansion. How can we forget that this perspective, false as unlikely (quickly ferry billion people, where? ... in life-sustaining environments yet to be built ....), fueled fruitless, useless and harmful discussions, providing opponents of space colonization topics that they would never been able even to imagine in their narrow minds? To support such hyperbole - confirming the title, interstellar - we must then rely on still non-existent technologies, such as the ability to create worm-holes and to use black holes to quickly reach planets thousands of light years far away. The average viewer will derive the impression that the space would be a solution, perhaps, if there were planets similar to Earth, but extremely unlikely, since the needed technologies yet fully belong to the far science fiction, that science fiction, though fascinating, and that we remember with great nostalgia, but still Twentieth Century dated. Will the boys and girls be able, watching this movie, to think about the nowadays feasible expansion into space? The expansion that may start tomorrow morning, colonizing the moon, building habitats such as the one designed by Gerard ONeill in Lagrange libration points, using the raw materials of near-Earth asteroids to build the space infrastructure and to form the bedrock needed to sustain life in the Geo-Lunar region and in the inner core of the Solar System, included within the Mars orbit? I would love to hear feedback from youngs and less youngs (:-).
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 12:20:38 +0000
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